Heathen, Hindoo, Hindu PDF Download

Author: Michael J. Altman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190654929
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 201

View

Book Description
Heathen, Hindoo, Hindu is a groundbreaking analysis of American representations of religion in India before the turn of the twentieth century. Before Americans wrote about "Hinduism," they wrote about "heathenism," "the religion of the Hindoos," and "Brahmanism." Americans used the heathen, Hindoo, and Hindu as an other against which they represented themselves. The questions of American identity, classification, representation and the definition of "religion" that animated descriptions of heathens, Hindoos, and Hindus in the past still animate American debates today.

Author: Shashi Tharoor
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 1787380459
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 347

View

Book Description
Hinduism is one of the world's oldest and greatest religious traditions. In captivating prose, Shashi Tharoor untangles its origins, its key philosophical concepts and texts. He explores everyday Hindu beliefs and practices, from worship to pilgrimage to caste, and touchingly reflects on his personal beliefs and relationship with the religion. Not one to shy from controversy, Tharoor is unsparing in his criticism of 'Hindutva', an extremist, nationalist Hinduism endorsed by India's current government. He argues urgently and persuasively that it is precisely because of Hinduism's rich diversity that India has survived and thrived as a plural, secular nation. If narrow fundamentalism wins out, Indian democracy itself is in peril.

Author: Kancha Ilaiah
Publisher: Popular Prakashan
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 164

View

Book Description
The Author Writes With Passionate Anger And Sarcasm On The Situation In India To-Day. Synthesizing Many Of The Ideas Of Bahujans, The Author Presents Their Vision Of A More Just Society.

Author: Andrew J. Nicholson
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231149875
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 282

View

Book Description
Some postcolonial theorists argue that the idea of a single system of belief known as "Hinduism" is a creation of nineteenth-century British imperialists. Andrew J. Nicholson introduces another perspective: although a unified Hindu identity is not as ancient as some Hindus claim, it has its roots in innovations within South Asian philosophy from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries. During this time, thinkers treated the philosophies of Vedanta, Samkhya, and Yoga, along with the worshippers of Visnu, Siva, and Sakti, as belonging to a single system of belief and practice. Instead of seeing such groups as separate and contradictory, they re-envisioned them as separate rivers leading to the ocean of Brahman, the ultimate reality. Drawing on the writings of philosophers from late medieval and early modern traditions, including Vijnanabhiksu, Madhava, and Madhusudana Sarasvati, Nicholson shows how influential thinkers portrayed Vedanta philosophy as the ultimate unifier of diverse belief systems. This project paved the way for the work of later Hindu reformers, such as Vivekananda, Radhakrishnan, and Gandhi, whose teachings promoted the notion that all world religions belong to a single spiritual unity. In his study, Nicholson also critiques the way in which Eurocentric concepts—like monism and dualism, idealism and realism, theism and atheism, and orthodoxy and heterodoxy—have come to dominate modern discourses on Indian philosophy.

Author: t.s.viswanathan
Publisher: SUBRAMANIAM BROTHERS PRIVATE LTD
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 428

View

Book Description
An Introduction: The purpose of writing the book is to provide a brief idea and knowledge about the various Vedic religious, rituals, practices,science, mathematics, beliefs prevalent in Hinduism. In short, to reveal the secrets of Hinduism. In India one should know that there were the intellectuals like rishis and saints and also tribals. The rishis and seers gave the written form of Vedas, Vedangas, languages, sciences, and all forms of knowledge. Sages and seers developed all faculties for Human knowledge, right from medicine to maths, philosophy, physics, astronomy and so on. The concept of re incarnation was one of the highest secrets of Hinduism and followed subsequently by other eastern religions.Though all were in pure Sanskrit it formed the base for the entire world to accelerate their development in all spheres of life. These were all introduced by seers in India through spirituality obtained from incessant meditation. The core practice is meditation. Since tribals living in India were accepted into the Hindu fold their practice still continues though reforms by Shankaracharya had its impact. These tribal practices were commonly criticized as a practice of Hinduism by westerners and other foreigners which is not true. Hinduism allowed their system also to flourish without much intervention. This book shall serve as an eye opener to all especially the younger generation who in the midst of their busy work may not have sufficient time to go deep into the Vedas and realize them. In whatever permissible context I have quoted the relevant portions of the Vedas and other texts to substantiate the authority of the writing. This book has also been written keeping in mind the innumerable NRI families and other foreigners belonging to various religions and cultures, across the globe, who would like to know about Hinduism and its secrets , and who at the same time have not been much exposed to its vast culture. Attempt has been made to analyse every topic to its semantics and explain to the reader for his understanding. Though India is divided by its language it is united by its culture which is Hinduism. However it must be noted that all Indian languages have their base in Sanskrit.The culture of religion was introduced by those ancient seers through epics, puranas emanating from the Vedas. Thus this culture is being experienced by the people in India called as Hindus. Hinduism has been a very tolerant society and over a period of civilizations has assimilated and welcomed many diverse cultures. Hinduism is not a religion in the strict modern sense, but is a composite culture. People living on the other side of river Sindhu were called as Hindus by the Persians (modern Iran) as they shared a common border with the ancient India (now in the region of West Pakistan). In the ancient Persian language they did not have phonetics or syllable for “sa or saa”, hence instead of being called as Sindhus they called as Hindus. “The swastika the early symbol of Hinduism has been widely found in Neolithic European ruins during the past two centuries of archaeological excavations. This has convinced scholars during Past and present that prehistoric Europeans practiced an early form of Hinduism with high spiritual concepts of eternal soul, transmigration, karma, yoga, the third eye and the Nirvana” says Richard Cassaro, Journalist and speaker. Most of us living in the modern age, especially the younger generation , would not have a holistic idea of the practices, science and technology prevalent in this culture especially from vedic times, and therefore this book is an attempt to impart and reveal in a nutshell of the wide beneficial practices prevalent in this ancient culture for the welfare of Humanity.

Author: Mahatma Gandhi
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788123709277
Category : Hinduism
Languages : en
Pages : 119

View

Book Description
A selection of Gandhiji s articles drawn mainly from his contributions to young india, the Harijan and the Navjivan on Hinduism. Written on different occassions, these articles present a picture of hindu dharma I all its richness, comprehensiveness and sensitivity to the existential delimmas of human existence.

Author: Benedict de Spinoza
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
ISBN: 1613105886
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 404

View

Book Description
Men would never be superstitious, if they could govern all their circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favoured by fortune: but being frequently driven into straits where rules are useless, and being often kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertainty of fortune's greedily coveted favours, they are consequently, for the most part, very prone to credulity. The human mind is readily swayed this way or that in times of doubt, especially when hope and fear are struggling for the mastery, though usually it is boastful, over - confident, and vain. This as a general fact I suppose everyone knows, though few, I believe, know their own nature; no one can have lived in the world without observing that most people, when in prosperity, are so over-brimming with wisdom (however inexperienced they may be), that they take every offer of advice as a personal insult, whereas in adversity they know not where to turn, but beg and pray for counsel from every passer-by. No plan is then too futile, too absurd, or too fatuous for their adoption; the most frivolous causes will raise them to hope, or plunge them into despair - if anything happens during their fright which reminds them of some past good or ill, they think it portends a happy or unhappy issue, and therefore (though it may have proved abortive a hundred times before) style it a lucky or unlucky omen. Anything which excites their astonishment they believe to be a portent signifying the anger of the gods or of the Supreme Being, and, mistaking superstition for religion, account it impious not to avert the evil with prayer and sacrifice. Signs and wonders of this sort they conjure up perpetually, till one might think Nature as mad as themselves, they interpret her so fantastically. Thus it is brought prominently before us, that superstition's chief victims are those persons who greedily covet temporal advantages; they it is, who (especially when they are in danger, and cannot help themselves) are wont with Prayers and womanish tears to implore help from God: upbraiding Reason as blind, because she cannot show a sure path to the shadows they pursue, and rejecting human wisdom as vain; but believing the phantoms of imagination, dreams, and other childish absurdities, to be the very oracles of Heaven. As though God had turned away from the wise, and written His decrees, not in the mind of man but in the entrails of beasts, or left them to be proclaimed by the inspiration and instinct of fools, madmen, and birds. Such is the unreason to which terror can drive mankind!

Author: Swami Achuthananda
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 1481825526
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 110

View

Book Description
Religion is the opium of the people, said Karl Marx many centuries ago. For more than a billion people living in India and abroad, Hinduism is the religion and a way of life. In this multi-award winning book, Swami Achuthananda cracks open the opium poppy pods, analyzes the causes for euphoria, and comes away with a deeper understanding of the people and their religion. *** Winner 2014 Next Generation Indie Book Awards (Religious Non-fiction) *** This is a comprehensive book on Hinduism. It tells you why Hindus do the things they do - and don't. Written in a casual style, the book guides you through the fundamentals of the religion. It then goes further and debunks a number of long-standing myths, some of them coming from the academia (of all places). While most books shy away from contentious issues, this book plunges headlong by taking on controversies, like the Aryan Invasion Theory, idol worship, RISA scholarship and many more. In fact one-third of the book is just on controversies that you rarely find in any other literature. Other Awards: *** Finalist - 2014 Pacific Book Awards (Religion) *** *** Bronze - 2014 IPPY Award - (Religion) ***

Author: Wendy Doniger
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199360073
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 681

View

Book Description
On Hinduism is a penetrating analysis of many of the most crucial and contested issues in Hinduism, from the Vedas to the present day. In a series of 63 connected essays, it discusses Hindu concepts of polytheism, death, gender, art, contemporary puritanism, non-violence, and much more.

Author: Esther Bloch
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135182795
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 209

View

Book Description
Critically assesses recent debates about the colonial construction of Hinduism. Written by experts in their field, the chapters present historical and empirical arguments as well as theoretical reflections on the topic, offering new insights into the nature of the construction of religion in India.